Chapter Summary

Certain outstanding twentieth-century composers have assimilated and built upon the accomplishments of earlier times and foreign cultures to develop original styles of their own. Women and members of various minority groups have made important contributions to the music of our time. Neoclassicists and Neoromantics combine twentieth-century melodic and harmonic techniques with the expressive and formal ideas of earlier periods. Some of this century's composers, including Bartok and Gershwin, have been nationalistic in style. The members of Les Six found inspiration in light and popular music.

Some modern composers have found early music a fertile source of material. Some have also introduced entirely new concepts. Metrical modulation, white noise, and minimalism are among the stimulating topics covered in this chapter.